Q And today First Lady Laura Bush will announce the first grants for
rebuilding school libraries in the Gulf region that were destroyed by
hurricanes. The First Lady joins us now from New Orleans. It's great
to have you back with us.

MRS. BUSH: Thanks so much, E.D.

Q So, tell us about this. Louisiana has such a rich history, and I
know that many of these libraries contained old and rare collections of
books, some of them the entire collection of Life Magazines going back
decades. How are you helping out the libraries?

MRS. BUSH: That's right. Well, the Chalmette High School, where I'll
be later this morning to announce all the different grants, did have a
collection from the '30s of Life Magazine. They used these as primary
sources when their high school students studied American history. They
could read these magazines as the lead up to World War II and really see
what America was like during that time. And that was one of the saddest
things they lost, when they lost their whole library.

So today they will be receiving a grant from the Laura Bush Foundation
to restock the library. And then the great news is Time Warner, someone
from Time Warner will be there who has gone back and gotten all of those
Life Magazines since the '30s to be able to present to Chalmette High
School. So that's very exciting.

One other really great thing about this high school that I'm going to
visit is how one school superintendent, Doris Volitier, just went to
work right after the hurricane, right after the flood waters went down
in St. Bernard Parrish, and rebuilt this high school. She opened it in
November. She thought maybe 50 to 100 kids would come back, but instead
many more children came, both high school and elementary school age,
because she was only able to open the one school.

Now there are more than 600 kids back. They want to be back in their
own schools. So this fall St. Bernard Parrish is going to -- Chalmette
is going to open an elementary school. And that's good news. That
shows that people are coming back. When kids are coming back to school,
then you know families are moving back to the Gulf Coast.

Q So the Laura Bush Foundation will award grants to these schools,
and there will be a second round of grants by the end of the summer.

MRS. BUSH: That's right. We're awarding ten grants today, three in
Mississippi, seven in Louisiana, to schools that are ready to restock
their school libraries. And then as other schools are rebuilt, as
they're ready to restock, they need to go ahead and apply. And we
should have another round of grants next fall, I hope.

Q I talk to you, and of course I know that you're the First Lady, but
you're also a pretty regular person like the rest of us. (Laughter.)
When you were watching television -- I know it's hard to do in your
position, but when you were watching television on Monday, and you saw
the protests and the rallies for the extended rights for illegal
immigrants, what was your reaction?

MRS. BUSH: Well, I think we have to do something about immigration. We
need to have a humane and sensitive immigration policy, and we need to
work on that to make sure people don't die in the desert as they cross
Texas or Arizona because they are coming in illegally. We need to
figure out a way to have legal immigration, including a guest worker
program like the President has suggested, that will give people a legal
way to be in the United States so they can go back home to Mexico and
they can come back in for jobs without worry of having to sneak in
across the desert.

Our country is a country of immigrants. We nearly all are immigrants,
and our families came at different times for different reasons, a lot of
them political, from around the world. And I think we need to be a
welcoming country. On the other hand, I think people who have stood in
line to become legal citizens should not be preempted by other people.
I think we should have an orderly and legal, obviously, citizenship
process.

Q All right, well, we appreciate your time this morning. And
wonderful that you're using your celebrity, your position to do such
great things for these Gulf Coast schools. Thank you.